"It has been a nightmare, one that shouldn't happen to anybody," said Wos.

Liz Wos, the youngest of the eight O'Connell siblings, says that her brother was severely beaten during the early morning hours last Friday, shortly after he was leaving a bar on Taylor Street in Little Italy.

"We've heard things like multiple kicks, unconscious, bleeding, we don't know a thing more than that," said Wos.

O'Connell was found lying on the street, next door to the bar and in front of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. Although O'Connell was rushed to the hospital, it took three days for his family and also for police to discover what had happened.